THE NEW TESTAMENT TEXT AND ITS HISTORY.
The history of the New Testament text naturally falls into two main
divisions, that of the _manuscript_ text, and that of the _printed_
text. A few remarks will be added on the _principles of textual
criticism_. _See PLATES at the beginning of this book_.
[Transcriber's Note: Transcriptions of the Plates are at the end of this
e-book.]
I. THE MANUSCRIPT TEXT.
1. The preservation of the primitive text of the gospels from all
essential corruptions, additions, and mutilations has already been shown
at some length (Part 1, Chap. 3). The same line of argument applies
substantially to the other books of the New Testament. Though the text
of different books varies in respect to purity, there is no ground for
supposing that if we had the autographs of the evangelists and other
sacred writers, they would present to us a gospel differing in any
essential particular from that which we now possess. We should see in
them the same glorious Saviour, and the same holy system of doctrines
and duties.
2. But it has not pleased God to interpose in a miraculous way for the
purpose of keeping the primitive text in a state of immaculate purity.
He has left it subject to those common influences which produce what are
called _various readings_ in all works that are perpetuated from age to
age by transcription. Compared indeed with any other ancient writings,
the text of the New Testament has immensely the advantage in regard to
uncorruptness of preservation and means of verification. This arises
from the early multiplication of copies, as well as from the high value
attached by the primitive churches to their sacred books, and their
consequent zeal for their uncorrupt preservation. But the same
multiplication of copies which constitutes a sure guarantee against
essential mutilations and corruptions increases also the number of
various readings. Suppose, for example, that of two books equal in size
the second has been, from the first, copied a hundred-fold oftener than
the first. It is plain that, while the means of ascertaining and
verifying the true text of the second will abound, the number of
variations among the different manuscripts will abound also. The greater
the number of copies, the greater will be the number of various
readings, but this will make the true text not more but less uncertain;
for by diligent collation a text may be produced which, though not
absolutely immaculate, is very near to the primitive autograph, and
which can be certainly known to agree with it in every essential
respect. God does not rain down upon men bread and raiment from heaven,
as he could do with infinite ease; but he imposes upon them the
necessity of gaining both by hard labor. "In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread" is the stern law. God does not miraculously communicate
to the missionary who goes to Syria or India or China a knowledge of the
vernacular in his field of labor; but he must learn it by years of
patient study. And when he begins the work of translating, God does not
keep him in a supernatural way from all errors. He must find out and
correct his errors by the diligent use of the means at his disposal.
Just so it is the will of God that we should have a pure text of the New
Testament--pure in a critical sense--not without hard labor, but by
years of patient toil in the study and collation of the abundant
materials which his good providence has preserved for us.
3. _Various readings_ have arisen in the manuscripts of the New
Testament, as elsewhere, from the mistakes, and sometimes from the
unskilful corrections of the copyists and those subsequently employed to
compare and correct the copies. They are commonly divided into the three
classes of _substitutions_, _insertions_, and _omissions_.
_Substitutions_ from similarity of sound would naturally arise among the
vowels when, as was sometimes the case, the copyist wrote from
dictation, being guided by the ear instead of the eye. Most of these,
however, are mere matters of orthography. It is only when they affect
the sense that they come under the head of various readings. Synonymous
words, or those of kindred meaning, are frequently put for one another,
or the order of words is altered; sometimes a different word is made
through inadvertence by the change of a single letter or a couple of
letters; compound words are interchanged with simple; contracted words
are confounded with each other; plainer or more grammatical readings are
substituted for those that are difficult or less grammatical, etc.
Especially are parallel passages in one writer altered, so as to be
brought into conformity with the same in another.
_Insertions_ are the most frequent mode of variation. The copyist fills
out the text of his author from a parallel passage, inserts marginal
notations in the text, repeats clauses through inadvertence, etc.
Of amplification from parallel passages many undoubted examples
could be given. A single one must suffice. In Acts 9:5, the
words, _It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks_, have
been added from Acts 26:14.
The most fruitful source of _omissions_ is the similar termination of
two adjacent words, lines, or sentences, causing the eye of the copyist
to overlook the word, line, or sentence intervening between the two
similar endings. The same error may be caused by the circumstance of two
sentences beginning in the same way. It should be remembered that in the
ancient manuscripts the text was written continuously in uncial--that
is, capital--letters, without any division between the words, which made
it more difficult for the copyist to follow the manuscript before him,
and for both the copyist and collater to discover the errors made in
transcription.
By far the greatest number of various readings had their origin in
simple inadvertence. Some of them, however, are due to unskilful
criticism; as when the copyist or the corrector sought to bring a
passage in one writer into more exact agreement with the corresponding
passage in another, to supply supposed deficiencies or correct supposed
errors in his copy, or to substitute smoother and more grammatical forms
of expression. Wilful falsifications in the interest of a particular
sect or party cannot with any show of justice be imputed to the men who
have perpetuated to us the text of the New Testament.
4. The _materials_ for textual criticism are much more abundant in the
case of the New Testament than of the Old. A vast mass of manuscripts
has been collected from different and distant regions, dating from the
fourth century and onward. Of these, part are in the original Greek,
part in ancient versions, or bilingual, that is, containing the original
and a version of it side by side. In addition to these are the
quotations of the early fathers, which are so abundant that a large part
of the New Testament text might be collected from them alone. The
question of the history of the text, as gathered from this rich mass of
materials, is very interesting, but is foreign to the plan of the
present work. To give even a history of the controversies respecting the
proper classification of the manuscripts of the New Testament according
to their characteristic readings would require a volume, and the
question must be regarded as yet unsettled. There are, however, some
general results, a few of the more important of which are here given
from Tregelles (in Horne, vol. 4, chap: 8).
The variations in the form of the sacred text are not due to any
general recensions or revisions by ecclesiastical authority, but
arose gradually from the causes above considered (No. 3). These
variations exhibit such gradations of text that it is impossible
to draw definite lines of classification, without admitting so
many exceptions as almost to destroy the application of such a
system.
There is a general difference in characteristic readings between
the more ancient manuscripts, versions, and citations, and the
copies of general circulation in more recent times. This gives
rise to the general line of demarcation between the _more
ancient_ and the _more recent_ texts; each of these two classes,
however, having, in turn, its own points of difference among the
texts belonging to it.
The more ancient manuscripts, versions, and citations which we
possess range themselves under what we know from their combined
testimony to be the more ancient text. Among the manuscripts and
documents so allied there are such shades of difference and
characteristic peculiarities, that the versions and manuscripts
might be easily contemplated as ramifying into two subclasses.
The most ancient documents in general are sufficiently
dissimilar to enable us to regard their testimony, when
combined, as cumulative.
5. Respecting the materials for writing in ancient times--papyrus and
parchment, afterwards paper made from linen or cotton; the form of
manuscripts--the roll with papyrus, and the book-form with leaves when
parchment was used; the use of _palimpsests_; the _uncial_ and _cursive_
styles of writing; and the means of determining the age of manuscripts,
see in Chap. 3, No. 2. The existing manuscripts have been all numbered
and catalogued. The custom since the time of Wetstein has been to mark
the uncial manuscripts by capital letters, and the cursives by numbers
or small letters. We append a brief notice of a few of the more
celebrated manuscripts.
There are four very ancient and important manuscripts, all of
which originally contained the entire Greek Bible of the Old and
New Testament, and which belong to a time when the arrangements
of Euthalius, especially his stichometrical mode of writing
(Chap. 25, Nos. 6-9), had either not been introduced or not come
into common use. These are the following:
(1.) The _Codex Vaticanus_, _Vatican manuscript_, marked by the
letter B, and so called from the Vatican library at Rome to
which it belongs. It is written continuously (without any
division of words) on very fine vellum--one of the marks of high
antiquity--in small but neat uncial letters, very much like
those of the manuscript rolls of Herculaneum, and has three
columns to the page, which is of the quarto size. Originally it
had at the end of particular sections a small empty space of the
breadth of a letter or half a letter, but no ornamental
capitals, marks of punctuation, or accents, though some of these
have been added by later hands. The divisions into sections made
by the empty spaces above named are peculiar to this codex, not
agreeing with those of any other system. Of these Matthew has
170; Mark, 62 (so says Cardinal Mai, but others say 72 or 61);
Luke, 152; John, 80. Most of the books have also brief titles
and subscriptions. The manuscript contained originally the whole
Bible, the Apocrypha included, as also the epistle of Clement to
the Corinthians. The order of the books in the New Testament, if
entire, would be the same as in the Alexandrine manuscript, the
Catholic epistles preceding the Pauline, and the epistle to the
Hebrews coming in between 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy. See
below. At present the Old Testament wants the greater part of
Genesis and a part of the Psalms. In the New Testament the
epistle to Philemon, the three pastoral epistles, the latter
part of the epistle to the Hebrews, and the Apocalypse are
wanting. This manuscript is generally referred to the fourth
century. Its authority is very high, but through the jealousy of
its Roman conservators it has been of late years, for all
practical purposes, inaccessible to biblical scholars. Cardinal
Mai's edition of it in 1858, and the revision of this in 1859,
are unreliable. Tischendorf has published an edition of the New
Testament part of it. _No. (3) PLATE II_.
(2.) The _Codex Sinaiticus_, _Sinai manuscript_, designated by
Tischendorf, its discoverer, by the Hebrew letter _aleph_
([Hebrew: A]). One of the most interesting events of the present
century, in the department of biblical science, is the very
unexpected discovery of a complete manuscript of the New
Testament, belonging, as is generally agreed, to the fourth
century; therefore as old, at least, as the Vatican manuscript,
perhaps older, and of very high authority in biblical criticism.
In a visit to Mount Sinai in 1844, Tischendorf had found at the
convent of St. Catharine on Mount Sinai forty-three beautiful
parchment leaves belonging to a manuscript of the Septuagint not
before known to biblical scholars. In a subsequent visit to the
same convent in February, 1859, it was his high privilege to
find of the same manuscript all the Greek New Testament entire,
part of the Old, the so-called epistle of Barnabas, and part of
the writing called the Shepherd of Hermas, the whole contained
in one hundred and thirty-two thousand columnar lines, written
on three hundred and forty-six leaves. This precious manuscript
Tischendorf managed to obtain for the emperor Alexander of
Russia as the great patron of the Greek church, and it is now at
St. Petersburg. It is written on parchment of a fine quality in
large plain uncial letters, with four columns to a page. It
contains, as is commonly the case with ancient manuscripts,
revisions and so-called corrections by a later hand; but, as it
proceeded from the pen of the original writer, it had neither
ornamented capitals, accents, nor divisions of words or
sentences. The style of writing is plain, and every thing about
it bears the marks of high antiquity. The order of the books is
as follows: (1) the gospels; (2) the epistles of Paul, that to
the Hebrews included, which stands after 2 Thessalonians; (3)
the Acts of the Apostles; (4) the Catholic epistles; (5) the
Apocalypse. It has the Ammonian sections and Eusebian canons,
but whether from the first or a subsequent hand is doubtful. A
splendid edition of this Codex was published at St. Petersburg
in 1862, which seeks to preserve with the greatest possible
accuracy the form of writing, columns, corrections, etc. The
Leipsic edition is adapted to popular use. _See No. (1), PLATE
I_.
(3.) We will consider next in order the _Codex Alexandrinus_,
_Alexandrine manuscript_, placed first in the list of uncial
manuscripts, and accordingly marked A. It is now in the British
Museum, London. In the year 1628 it was sent as a present to
Charles I., king of England, by Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of
Constantinople, by whom it was brought from Alexandria in Egypt,
where Cyrillus had formerly held the same office. Hence the name
Alexandrine. Cyrillus himself, in a notice attached to it, says
that tradition represented a noble Egyptian woman of the fourth
century named Thecla as the writer of it (an Arabic subscription
makes her to have been Thecla the martyr). These external
notices are not so reliable as the internal marks, all of which
show it to be of a great age. Some assign it to the fourth
century, but it is more commonly assigned to the fifth, and
Egypt is generally regarded as the place where it was written.
It is on parchment in uncial letters, without divisions of
words, accents, or breathings, and with only occasional marks of
interpunction--a dot to indicate a division in the sense. The
lines are arranged in two columns, and the sections begin with
large letters, placed a little to the left of the
column--outside the measure of the column. The order of the
books is: (1) the gospels; (2) the Acts of the Apostles; (3) the
Catholic epistles; (4) the epistles of Paul, with that to the
Hebrews between 2 Thessalonians and 1 Timothy; (5) the
Apocalypse. In the gospels, the Ammonian sections with the
Eusebian canons are indicated, and at the top of the pages the
larger sections or _titles_. In the Old Testament it is
defective in part of the Psalms. In the New it wants all of
Matthew as far as chap. 25:6; also from John 6:50 to 8:52; and
from 2 Cor. 4:13 to 12:6. It has appended at the end the genuine
letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, and a fragment of
a second spurious letter. To these apocryphal additions we owe
the preservation of the Apocalypse in an entire state. Until the
discovery of the Sinai codex, the Alexandrine exhibited the text
of the New Testament in far the most entire state of all the
uncial manuscripts. _See No. (2), PLATE I_.
(4) The fourth manuscript of this group is the celebrated
palimpsest called _Codex Ephraemi_, _Ephraem manuscript_,
preserved in the Imperial library of Paris, and marked in the
list of uncials with the letter C. Originally it contained the
whole of the New Testament, and apparently the Old also,
elegantly written on thin vellum, with a single column to a
page. The writing is continuous, without accents or breathings,
and the letters are rather larger than in the Alexandrian
manuscript, the first letter of each section being of larger
size than the rest, and standing, as in that manuscript, a
little to the left of the column. The Ammonian sections stand in
the margin, but without the Eusebian canons. The gospels were
preceded by the list of _titles_, or larger sections, of which
those of Luke and John alone are preserved. The titles and
subscriptions are short and simple. The date of the manuscript
is supposed to be the first half of the fifth century. It has
undergone corrections at the hand of at least two persons,
possibly a third. These can be readily distinguished from the
original writing. The critical authority of this codex is very
high. Tregelles (in Horne, vol. 4, chap. 13) places it next to
the Vatican manuscript.
A few words on its history. About the thirteenth century, being
regarded as a worn-out and obsolete manuscript, the vellum on
which it was written was taken for a new purpose, that of
receiving the Greek works of Ephraem the Syrian saint, a
celebrated theologian of the old Syrian church, who flourished
in the fourth century. "For this purpose the leaves were taken
promiscuously, without any regard to their proper original
order, and sewed together at hap-hazard, sometimes top end down,
and front side behind, just as if they had been mere blanks, the
sermons of Ephraem being the only matter regarded in the book."
Stowe, Hist. of the Books of the Bible, p. 75. In the latter
part of the seventeenth century, Allix first observed the older
writing under the works of Ephraem. It was very illegible, but a
chemical preparation applied in 1834-5 revivified it to a
certain extent. It has been diligently collated by eminent
scholars, and in 1842 Tischendorf printed an edition of it page
for page and line for line. Of the two hundred and nine leaves
contained in this manuscript, one hundred and forty-five belong
to the New Testament, containing not quite two-thirds of the
sacred text. The order of the books is the same as in the
Alexandrine codex. _See No. (4), PLATE III_.
Besides the abovenamed four manuscripts, a few others may be briefly
noticed.
An interesting palimpsest of great critical value is the _Codex
Dublinensis rescriptus_, _Dublin palimpsest manuscript_, in the
library of Trinity College, Dublin, designated by the letter Z.
It contains with other writings thirty-two leaves of the gospel
by Matthew. They were edited, as far as legible, in 1801, by Dr.
John Barrett, Fellow of Trinity College. In 1853 Dr. Tregelles
made a new and thorough examination of the manuscript, and, by
the aid of a chemical process, brought all that exists of the
gospel text to a legible condition. This manuscript is assigned
to the sixth century. Its letters are written in a singularly
bold style, which unites the three qualities of ease, elegance,
and symmetry.
A celebrated _bilingual_ manuscript (in this case
_Graeco-Latin_, containing the Greek and Latin texts) is the
_Codex Bezae_, _Beza's manuscript_, called also _Codex
Cantabrigiensis_, _Cambridge manuscript_, from the place of its
deposit, which is the public library of the University of
Cambridge, England. It is designated by the letter D, and
contains the four gospels and Acts of the Apostles in Greek and
Latin on opposite pages, stichometrically written. The account
of Theodore Beza, its former possessor, was that he found it
during the French civil wars in 1562, in the monastery of St.
Irenæus, at Lyons. In 1581 he sent it as a present to the
University of Cambridge. The interest felt in this manuscript
arises in great part from the very peculiar character of its
readings. "The text of this codex," says Bleek (Introduc. to New
Test., sec. 270), "presents much that is peculiar--many
additions and alterations that have even an apocryphal
character, but are yet not uninteresting. Its native country is
the West, and more definitely the south of Gaul." _See No. (5),
PLATE IV_.
Among the _fragments_ of manuscripts of high antiquity is one
called _Codex purpureus_, _Purple manuscript_. _Four_ leaves of
this are in the Cotton Library in the British Museum, _six_ in
the Vatican, _two_ in the Imperial Library at Vienna. The
manuscript to which they belonged was written in silver letters
(the names of God and Christ in gold) on purple vellum. The
writing is in two columns with large and round letters. It is
referred to the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh
century.
Many other uncial manuscripts, or fragments of manuscripts, some
of them of great critical value, might be described; but the
above brief notices must suffice. Of those which contain ancient
_versions_, a few of the more important will be noticed in the
following chapter.
The _cursive_ manuscripts of the Now Testament are numbered by
hundreds. In general their authority is less than that of the
more ancient uncials. But a cursive manuscript may give
indirectly a very ancient text. There are some cursives which,
from their characteristic readings, were manifestly executed
from codices of high antiquity, and are for this reason very
valuable. As such Tregelles specifies those numbered 1 and 33.
For further notices of these, as also of the _lectionaries_,
containing selections for church readings, the reader may
consult the works devoted to biblical criticism.
II. THE PRINTED TEXT.
6. The _primary editions_ of the Greek New Testament, whence is derived
what is called _the received text_ (_Textus receptus_) are the
following: (1) the _Complutensian_; (2) the _Erasmian_; (3) those of
_Robert Stephens_; (4) those of _Beza_ and _Elzevir_. Their authority in
textual criticism depends wholly upon that of the manuscripts from which
their text was formed. As no stream can rise higher than its fountains,
so no printed text can obtain a just weight of influence above that of
its manuscript sources. It becomes, then, a matter of interest to
inquire what was the basis of these early printed editions.
(1.) The entire New Testament was printed for the first time in
Greek in the fifth volume of the _Complutensian Polyglott_ (so
called from _Complutum_, that is _Alcala_ in Spain, where it was
printed under the patronage of Cardinal Ximenes). It bears the
date of 1514, but was not published until 1522, when Erasmus had
already printed three editions of his Greek Testament. Its
editors professed to have formed their text from manuscripts
sent to them from the papal library at Rome. What these
manuscripts were cannot now be ascertained; but that they were
very ancient and correct, as alleged by these editors, is
contradicted by the character of the text, which agrees with the
modern in opposition to the most ancient manuscripts.
(2.) At the request of Froben, a celebrated printer and
publisher of Basle, _Erasmus_, who was then in England, where he
had devoted some time to a revised Latin translation of the New
Testament with annotations, went to Basle in 1515, and began the
work of editing a Greek New Testament. "By the beginning of
March, 1516," says Tregelles, "the whole volume, including the
annotations as well as the Greek and Latin texts, was complete;
in less, in fact, than six months from the time that the first
sheet was begun." The design of this haste was to anticipate the
publication of the Complutensian edition. The critical apparatus
in Erasmus' possession was quite slender. It consisted of such
manuscripts as he found at Basle, with the help of the revised
Latin translation already prepared in England and Brabant. For
the Apocalypse he had but one manuscript, and that defective at
the end. In his four subsequent editions--1519, 1522, 1527,
1535--he made many corrections. In that of 1527 he availed
himself of the Complutensian text. This edition, from which the
fifth and last published during his life differs but slightly,
is the basis of the common text now in use.
(3.) In 1546, 1549, 1550, appeared the three editions of _Robert
Stephens_, the celebrated Parisian printer. In the first two of
these the text is said to have been formed from the
Complutensian and Erasmian. In the third edition, although he
had the aid of thirteen Greek manuscripts, his text is almost
identical with that of Erasmus' fifth edition.
(4.) In 1565, _Theodore Beza_ published at Geneva his first
edition of the Greek Testament with his own Latin version, and
also the Vulgate with annotations. Three other editions followed
in 1576, 1582, 1588-9. He had the use of the Codex Bezae above
described, the Codex Claromontanus (an ancient Graeco-Latin
manuscript of the Pauline epistles), the Syriac version then
recently published by Tremellius, with a close Latin
translation, and Stephens' collations. But he is said not to
have made much use of these helps.
The first of the _Elzevir_ editions, so celebrated for their
typographical beauty, was issued in 1624, its text being mainly
copied from that of Beza. This is the text that has acquired the
name of _Textus receptus_, the _Received Text_, as it was for
more than a century the basis of almost all subsequent editions.
The genealogy of this _Textus receptus_ is thus succinctly given
by Bishop Marsh: "The _Textus receptus_, therefore, or the text
in common use, was copied, with a few exceptions, from the text
of Beza. Beza himself closely followed Stephens; and Stephens
(namely, in his third and chief edition) copied solely from the
fifth edition of Erasmus, except in the Revelation, where he
followed sometimes Erasmus, sometimes the Complutensian edition.
The text, therefore, in daily use, resolves itself at last into
the Complutensian and the Erasmian editions." Divinity Lectures,
part I, p. 111.
7. It requires but a moderate acquaintance with the history of textual
criticism to understand that the Elzevir text is not only not perfect,
but is more imperfect than that which has been elaborated by the help of
the abundant manuscripts, versions, and citations of the early fathers,
of which modern criticism has availed itself. It is no reproach to the
editors of the primary editions that, with their comparatively scanty
materials, they could not accomplish as much as we can with the rich and
varied means at our disposal. The _essential integrity_ of the received
text, we do indeed thankfully acknowledge and firmly maintain. Our
fathers had presented to them in this text the same divine and glorious
Saviour, the same way of salvation, the same holy system of doctrines
and duties, as we now find in the most carefully revised modern text.
Nevertheless, a true reverence for the inspired word must impel us to
the diligent use of all the means at our command for setting forth a
pure text, that is, a text conformed as nearly as possible to that of
the original autographs. Viewed in this light the modern critical
editions of the New Testament must possess a deep interest for all who
are able to read it in the original tongue. But to discuss the merits of
these would be foreign to the design of the present work.
Examples of the more important various readings occur in John
1:18; Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 3:16. The passage 1 John 5:7, 8, _in
heaven--in earth_, is generally rejected on the testimony of the
manuscripts (see the full discussion in Horne, vol. 4, ch. 36).
Among the passages which are regarded as more or less doubtful
may be mentioned John 5:4; 8:3-11; Acts 8:37. In regard to all
these the biblical scholar must be referred to the critical
commentaries. So also for the questions connected with the text
of Mark 16:9-20, which are of a peculiar character.
III. PRINCIPLES OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM.
8. The end proposed by textual criticism is to restore the sacred text
as nearly as possible to its primitive purity (Chap. 7, No. 1). To this
work the biblical scholar should come in a candid and reverential
spirit, prepared to weigh carefully all the evidence which is accessible
to him, and decide, not as an advocate, but as a judge, in the simple
interest of truth. The three great sources of evidence for the original
text of the New Testament are Greek manuscripts, versions, and the
citations of the fathers. Of these, _Greek manuscripts_ hold the first
place. But all manuscripts are not of equal value. Other things being
equal, the oldest manuscripts have the highest authority. "If the
multiplication of copies of the New Testament had been uniform, it is
evident that the number of later copies preserved from the accidents of
time would have far exceeded that of the earlier, yet no one would have
preferred the fuller testimony of the thirteenth to the scantier
documents of the fourth century. Some changes are necessarily introduced
in the most careful copying, and these are rapidly multiplied." Westcott
in Smith's Bible Dict.; Art. New Test. Yet, as the same writer remarks,
we may have evidence that a recent manuscript has been copied from one
of great antiquity, and thus has preserved to us very ancient readings.
Revisions and corrections by a later hand are to be carefully
distinguished from the primitive writing. Yet these may be valuable, as
testifying to the prevailing reading of the age to which they belong.
The general class or family to which a given manuscript belongs is also
to be taken into the account. In a word, so many elements of judgment
are to be taken into account in determining the relative weight of
authority that belongs to a given manuscript, that the right decision of
the question requires large observation combined with much critical
tact.
9. _Ancient versions_ are of great value in textual criticism; for some
of them, as the old Latin and Syriac, to which may be added the old
Egyptian versions, are based on a text more ancient than that preserved
to us in any manuscript. In textual criticism, the testimony of a
version is valuable in proportion to its antiquity, its fidelity--not
its elegance or even its correctness of interpretation, but its literal
closeness--and the purity of its text. Versions are liable to all the
corruptions of text incident to Greek manuscripts, and far more liable
to interpolations by explanatory glosses. The difference of idiom,
moreover, frequently prevents such a literal rendering as shall be a
sure indication of the form belonging to the original text.
10. The _citations_ of the church fathers, which are immensely numerous,
constitute another source of testimony. But less authority belongs in
general to these, because they are often made loosely from memory alone.
Their testimony is chiefly valuable as _corroborative_. "Patristic
citations _alone_ have very little weight; such citations, even when in
accordance with a version, have but little more; but when a citation
_is_ in accordance with some ancient MSS. and translations, it possesses
great corroborative value. It is as _confirming_ a reading known
independently to exist, that citations are of the utmost importance. If
alone, or nearly alone, they may be looked at as mere casual adaptations
of the words of the New Testament." Tregelles in Horne, vol. 4, ch. 34.
11. The _application_ of the above sources of criticism to the sacred
text demands very extensive research and much sound judgment. "Canons of
criticism," as they are called are valuable in their proper sphere; but,
as Westcott remarks (_ubi supra_), "they are intended only to guide and
not to dispense with the exercise of tact and scholarship. The student
will judge for himself how far they are applicable in every particular
case; and no exhibition of general principles can supersede the
necessity of a careful examination of the characteristics of separate
witnesses, and of groups of witnesses."
We bring this subject to a close by an enumeration of the last six of
the thirteen rules laid down by Westcott.
8. "The agreement of ancient MSS., or of MSS. containing an ancient
text, with all the ancient versions and citations marks a certain
reading."
9. "The disagreement of the most ancient authorities often marks the
existence of a corruption anterior to them."
10. "The argument from internal evidence is always precarious." This
canon he illustrates by several examples: "If a reading is in accordance
with the general style of the writer, it may be said on the one side
that this fact is in its favor, and on the other that an acute copyist
probably changed the exceptional expression for the more usual one," &c.
11. "The more difficult reading is preferable to the simpler." This
canon rests on the obvious ground that a copyist would be more apt to
substitute an easy reading for a difficult than the reverse.
12. "The shorter reading is generally preferable to the longer." Because
of all corruptions of the text, additions from parallel passages, or to
meet its supposed wants, are the most common.
13. "That reading is preferable which explains the origin of the
others."